Remembrance...

I wrote this last year  and thought I would re post it since I still find the words to hold true.
Remember, on this day, those who made the sacrifices for our freedom.

I have never known war in my life.
I have only been witness to it through the news and stories told in books and movies.
Some of my relatives fought in wars, but I never knew them and only saw pictures of them as young soldiers in uniforms.
I am in great turmoil to hear that the most popular game gift this season is a bloody, violent interactive video complete with assaults on innocent civilians.
I am disturbed to know that people play the game of paintball as a recreational activity.

When I think of November 11th I am filled with thoughts like these:

I am not the young lad who watched his comrade fall and join the ranks of lifeless bodies on the muddy field.

I am not the naked, young girl running down the road, burned by a bomb.

I am not the face in the black and white photo in the museum for the Killing Fields.

Nor am I the veiled housewife who is killed by a roadside bomb after buying oranges in the market mid day.

I was not shot trying to jump over a wall that divided a nation.

My race did not land me in a box car headed to Auschwitz.

Alcohol and heroin, I don't need, to exercise my demons in the middle of the night.

I do not walk with a cane or artificial limbs and neither is a wheelchair my only transport.

My religion did not create a Peace Line in my neighborhood.

I was not the one who marched in the rain and slept in the filth for weeks on end.

Or looked into the eyes of my neighbor as I fired the rifle on the battlefields of North Carolina.

I was never treated like an animal because of the tone of my skin.
I am not the old man, standing with the last of his comrades, remembering friends lost.

I am a Canadian. I am 47 and have only known peace and freedom.

I have choices.

I honor those who died or suffered trying to make changes in their world and mine.

I have never known war and hope I never will.

brown days...

We have had an immense amount of rain in the last few weeks which has really installed the hibernation mood in me...

Even Griffin is content to hang out in the studio...usually he comes in for a smooch and hello and then he wants to go sit on the porch but I think the weather has him feeling cozy in here as well..
But alas! I still have to venture out to the hen house for eggs and to let the chickens out for a wander around or they get cranky and stop laying such beautiful eggs...On the way from the studio to the barnyard, I have been encountering these little armies of mushrooms...

They are miniscule...about 3 or 4 centimetres at the most and I figured I had better take a few portraits of them before the predicted cold weather comes along...

Out in the garden things are brown and droopy but have a beauty all their own while they die down for a long winter sleep...

I have this giant pine cone which sits in various places of honor depending where I feel it looks good and I took a close up of it today on the studio porch...

So, just looking at things from a different view today through all the raindrops and mist...it all looks good.

site of the day...

Open this door to see more..
My favorite site of the day has become my favorite sites of the weekend and perhaps one of all time...I came across this womans blog via two other blogs and feel I must share with you...she has captured medieval, fantastical, old world, gypsies and everything else that is deep in the moss and woodsy...at first I was reminded of Arthur Rackum but then the further I dwelled I saw a unique style that could only be her own...spend some time in her world and I guaruntee you will be wisked away to another place and time but as she says "...that's also right here and now". Her blog is lovely too and she also has a few shops on etsy to enable you to have some of her world in yours...look through this door...  and here for her blog

Anyway, another favorite thing, I found at the Sally Ann on the weekend...this sweet little book which I couldn't resist to add to my collection...

Such sweet little paintings...a treasure on my shelf..